Chicago is gaining low-income households, including many large Latino households, much faster than it is gaining housing they can afford, a University of Illinois at Chicago report says.
If current trends continue through 2010, the city will see a marked increase in overcrowding, homelessness, and households burdened by rents they cannot afford, said Yittayih Zelalem, research assistant professor and co-director of UIC's Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement.
The researchers categorized households by size and income, matched them to units by size and cost, and estimated the potential mismatch between demand and supply five years from now.
"Building for the high end of the market isn't working.
High-income people don't necessarily want to buy or rent the most expensive units," said Janet Smith, UIC associate professor of urban planning and policy and co-director of the Voorhees Center.
-Families increasingly are being pushed out of central neighborhoods because most new units in growing neighborhoods like the South Loop have no more than two bedrooms and are relatively expensive.
-An estimated 31,000-37,000 subsidized units could be lost as public housing is demolished and privately owned subsidized units are converted to market-rate.
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